Casa del Caribe: 33 years of history, tradition, culture and science

By: Lucía Montes de Oca

Perhaps, Joel James Figarola did not imagine the history and breakthroughs that Casa del Caribe, founded by him a long time ago, has achieved along the years.

This cultural institution, created on June 23, 1982, aims at rescuing the roots of Cuban spirituality and studying the culture of the Caribbean nations.

As may be read on the official website, “it is a unique institution in the country, composed of different research projects, in terms of promoting the autochthonous values of Traditional Popular Culture and the Magical Religious Systems, their peculiarities and ways of expressing in the nation; besides focusing its main attention on the study of the history and culture of the Caribbean and, particularly, Cuba and its links with these peoples”.

Recognized worldwide, the Fiesta del Fuego (Caribbean Festival or Fire Party as it also known) reaches to its 35th edition this year. The Caribbean Festival stands as a space where all popular expressions—dance, performing arts, religion, storytelling, poetry, cinema, and others—found their place.

Before the question on how Casa del Caribe and the Festival see the role of cultural exchange between Santiago de Cuba and other Caribbean peoples, Orlando Vergés, its current director, said: “Both, the Caribbean Festival and the Casa del Caribe were, from the outset, as the gateway of Latin America and the Caribbean to Santiago de Cuba and, largely, to the country too”.

“Since then, all kinds of exchanges have proliferated, from the sister nations, up to the opening of new diplomatic relationships”.

“Undoubtedly, the most important thing has been the fact that the Festival and the Casa have provided a space where different processes of exchange and continuity of the cultural identity of our peoples take place yearly”.

This year, the Festival is dedicated to Bahamas as guest honorary nation. There is also the peculiarity that Santiago de Cuba will be celebrating the 500 years of its foundation as village, and the 62 of the assaults to Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks.

Source: Sierra Maestra Digital